News Room

August 2, 2001

MIDDLEBURY,
VT - The Middlebury College Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference, the oldest writers' conference in the country,
will meet from Aug. 15-26. Held every summer since 1926 on
Middlebury's Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vt., the
conference celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and
remains of one of America's most respected literary
institutions. At Bread Loaf, aspiring writers continue to
seek inspiration from the same scenic wilderness setting
that has attracted a long list of famous literary figures to
the conference, from Carson McCullers and Robert Frost to
Jhumpa Lahiri.

Bread
Loaf's workshops, lectures and classes have introduced
generations of participants to rigorous practical and
theoretical approaches to the craft of writing, and have
served as a model of literary instruction.

"Bread
Loaf is not a retreat-not a place to work in solitude.
Instead it provides a voluble congress of diverse voices in
which we test our own assumptions regarding literature and
seek advice about our progress as writers," said Michael
Collier, director of the conference.

At
the 76th session of the conference, more than 200 writers,
faculty, and literary agents and editors from New York firms
as well as smaller agencies and presses from around the
country will gather. Several guests will give readings and
talks, which are open to the public. A National Book Critics
Circle Award finalist and the current Vermont State Poet,
Ellen Bryant Voigt will give a reading on Aug. 16. Novelist
Thomas Mallon, whose work frequently appears in The New York
Times Book Review, The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly,
will give a lecture on Aug. 17.

The
Bread Loaf faculty for this year's conference also includes
such writers as memoirist and essayist Vivian Gornick, poet
Linda Bierds and fiction writer Antonya Nelson.

The
following is a list of the 2001 Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference faculty:

Lectures,
readings and a concert by the Vermont Symphony Trio are free
and open to the public. Lectures are given by faculty and
readings are given by both faculty and guests. All lectures
and readings take place in the theatre at the Middlebury
College Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vt. Since events are
subject to change, confirm scheduled speakers by calling
Noreen Cargill, administrative coordinator of the
conference, at 802-443-5286.

Saturday,
August 18 9 a.m. Lecture with David Baker, "If: On Transit,
Transcendence, and Trope"
4:15 p.m. Reading with Thisbe Nissen and Robert Boswell
8:15 p.m. Reading with Linda Bierds and Lynn Freed

Sunday,
August 19 9 a.m. Lecture with Lynn Freed, "Embracing the Alien:
Distance in Time and Place in the Perspective of the
Writer"
4:15 p.m. Reading with Manuel Luis Martinez and David
Baker
8:15 p.m. Reading with Cate Marvin and Joan Silber